Dear Mr. Mummy,

How are you doing? I thought about sending you a "get well" card, but then again, you refuse to tell me anything about your location. Or name... or past. I know what it's like to lose family at a young age, so don't think you can't open up because I won't understand. Actually, why don't we make a deal. You tell me about your family, and I'll tell you about mine. No one's forcing you to, but you might want to reconsider keeping it all locked up inside. The pain can dig into your heart worse than any bullet.

Bruce👤

Dear Bruce,

So an orphan walks into a hospital... the punchline is as boring as the opening act. I'm propped up in a bleach white bed in a bleach white room in a bleach white building. I'm starting to hate any all things marshmallow-colored. Can I join you in the "black's my favorite color" club? I'm ready to convert. At least the Jell-O's not half bad... and I'm going to ignore the little commonsense voice in the back of my brain telling me all the unpleasant ingredients Jell-O is made out of. Not eyeballs. 100% not made out of eyeballs. I made sure to ditch the IV needles once Nurse Joy left the vicinity. I do not need nighty night juices weighing me down as I make my escape. But since I'm not exactly in a hurry to be anywhere, I might as well take your deal. But you're going to have to promise on your goldfish's grave that you won't tell ANYONE. My personal stuff stays personal if you know what I mean. Here we go: I had a normal family. Normal if your dad is a weapons dealer, your mom is a scientist, and your sister is the greatest genius prodigy psychologist tomboy of the century. Yeah, pretty normal if you ask me. If you took one look into our tiny hole of an apartment, you'd see activity out the wazoo. Mom would be cooking up something completely non-edible and potentially lethal, while dad would run back and forth from the basement to his shop next door with new orders coming in. Cody would be sitting at the kitchen table reading comics, every once and awhile breaking into tearful laughter at something funny the hero said or did. She didn't seem like the insightful type, but she had her moments of genius. I would be doing something completely unimportant and boring compared to my family's hobbies... like building stuff out of trash. I was the house mechanic, I probably picked it up from watching my dad assemble weapons all the time. I built a robotic tail for the family cat, Blacky... so that's something. Cody would always joke that me and the little black cat were related, since he had mismatched green blue eyes just like me. Hence the nickname BJ, aka BlackJay. It's weird, granted, but I've gotten used to it. So that's my family. If you want to know more, then you've gotta give me the goods on you and yours. I'm not going anywhere fast.

BlackJay🌙